Empire of Dust (38 page)

The priest nodded. "The greatest enemy indeed, my son. The Antichrist himself."

"'Antichrist,'" Joseph repeated. "That's what McAndrews would have said, if he'd had the strength."

"Is it true, Father?" asked Tony, sounding shocked and lost. "Is it the Antichrist?"

But before the priest could answer, Ezekiel Swain started laughing a laugh that sounded like lava bubbling. "Was
right
, was
right
. . . ." He gave a deep sigh that exuded not only air, but a spray of yellow liquid that the earthen floor soaked up. "My . . .
main
. . . man."

Father Alexander crossed himself. "God save us from all evil things," he said.

"Father, we've come a long way," Joseph said, "and we've got a lot of questions. I don't know how likely we are to get out of this alive, so I'd really appreciate it if you could tell us as much as you can."

The old priest nodded. "I think we may all die today. I've been sworn to silence, but I suspect even the Holy Father would not disapprove of my telling you the story to assuage your curiosity, and perhaps comfort your souls."

I
t began in the seventh century (Father Alexander said). The creature can be first traced to a small village at the foot of the Apennines. A troop of soldiers came through the village one day to find every resident dead. It appeared as though they had slaughtered each other. Even the children and the babies in their cradles had been killed. Indeed, some of the young children had died clutching bloody knives and axes, as though they had been among the attackers. As far as the soldiers could make out, half the population had risen up against the other half, and then they'd all turned on each other, fighting until they were all dead.

Only one man was left alive. He was sitting on a bench in the middle of town, smiling at the soldiers. When they asked him if he'd witnessed the slaughter, he said that he'd not only witnessed it, he'd been the cause of it. When they asked him how, he replied that he'd simply told the townspeople to begin killing each other, and half of them had responded in such a savage manner that the other half had had little opportunity to defend themselves.

The soldiers thought the man was mad. But then he began to tell them of the results of various crimes that they had come upon as they'd carried out their duties in the previous few years—unexplained deaths, and murders in which a man might have killed all the members of his family, and then turned his weapon on himself—and numerous rapes that had begotten multiple progeny—twins and triplets to double and triple the victims' shame.

The women and survivors had described the man who had been the rapist or the murderer, or in the vicinity when the uncanny events had occurred. He was a tall man, well formed and with light brown hair and beard. They all said that his face was handsome, even radiant, and his eyes were of a piercing blue. And that was the precise description of the man who had confessed his crimes to the soldiers.

Naturally they took him into custody, but when they bound his arms behind him, he somehow burst his bonds, and said that he would go with them not because he was forced to, but because it pleased him to do so. He had grown weary of killing in secret, he said. Perhaps confession would keep him amused.

They rode to a larger town and took the man before a magistrate. The man confessed to a multitude of crimes and then said that he did not repent of any of them, and intended to continue in such a manner as he had done. A boy was brought in who had survived the mass murder of his family. His father had killed himself after slaying his wife, his own mother, and four of his children. The boy identified the man as a traveler who had eaten supper with them that night. He said the man had told his father to take up a carving knife and kill everyone in the room, and then himself. The boy swore that the man was the devil incarnate, for his father had done precisely what he was told, with the exception of killing the boy, who had run outside and hidden.

That was enough for the magistrate. He ordered the man to be hanged for his crimes, such sentence to be carried out immediately. But the man ordered the magistrate to smash his own face on the table in front of him, and the magistrate did it, breaking his nose in the process. The man laughed and said that they had better hang him quick, or else he would order all the men in the room to sodomize the magistrate in the town square.

Then the soldiers tried to take the man to the gallows on the outskirts of town, but he commanded them to loose him, and they obeyed. He said that he would go to be hanged because it amused him, but he wished for everyone in the town to come along to watch him die.

Quite a procession followed him and the soldiers to the gallows. The man mounted the platform, walked up to the rope, put it around his own neck, and ordered one of the soldiers to open the trap. The soldier did, and the man dropped through. There he swung at the end of the rope, smiling, his hands spread as if he were proud of his achievement.

Several soldiers leapt at his body, as was the custom of the time, and dangled from his legs, adding extra weight to the man's to choke him. But he did not choke, and he did not die. With a laugh, he fell to the ground, while the rope, its noose still intact, dangled above him.

By this time, some of the onlookers were saying that the man was a demon, and the magistrate and soldiers were starting to agree with them. Nevertheless, if they could not execute him in one way, they would execute him in another. The captain in charge of the soldiers offered to sever the man's head from his body, for that was known to be an effective way to destroy those sent from Satan.

The man consented, and lay his head upon a wide stump, but when the captain swung his sword down across the man's neck, the blade went right through the man's flesh and thudded against the trunk. The man got up, totally unharmed.

At last people began to cry out, "Burn him!" and that seemed like a good idea, so they put together a great pile of wood, and spread pitch all over it, and the soldiers tied the man to a post in the center. As soon as they lit the fire, the man brought his arms forward. They were untied. And he merely stood there, unbound, as the flames rose about him and burned off his clothing. But neither his flesh nor his hair caught on fire. Everyone could hear his laughter over the crackle of the flames.

Then he pointed to the magistrate and said, "
Vieni
,"
Come
. The magistrate started walking toward the flames. Though the soldiers tried to stop him, he threw them off like a man possessed. He walked directly and firmly to the fire, and then into it, so that his clothing caught on fire. The crowd watched in horror as the magistrate's hair and flesh began to burn, and he started to scream, but the man beside him told him to be silent, and he was. He stood there until he could stand no more, and collapsed into the leaping flames.

Then the man stepped out. He was naked, for all his clothing had been burned away, and the records tell that he was . . . priapic to a great degree, causing women to scream at the sight of him, yet so beatific was his expression that they were drawn to him at the same time.

A priest who had been watching from the crowd declared him to be the Antichrist, and demanded in the name of Christ that he accompany him to Rome to see the Holy Father and stand before his judgment. The man agreed, saying that he would like to see this pope he had heard so much about. He was given some clothing, and put into a coach, and the priest and the soldiers accompanied him to Rome.

There is no record of his having caused any trouble on the way. On the contrary, he spoke often with the priest, asking him about the Holy Church and the Holy Father, and the priest told him what he could, at once fascinated and repelled by this creature.

At last they arrived in Rome and were taken to an audience with the Holy Father and all his cardinals, an audience kept secret from the populace. Having been informed of all that had happened, the Holy Father questioned the man, but the man made no answer other than to laugh at the Holy Father and tell him that Christ's kingdom would vanish from the world and be replaced by his own, that murder and terror and fear would reign on the earth, for he was impervious to harm.

The Holy Father then feared that the end times might be near, and, before those who were present, declared the creature to be the Antichrist. But he ordered that his existence should be kept secret until such time as he or his successors thought it best to reveal it. Then he ordered that the creature be submitted to all manner of torture and peril, to see if there might be any that would end its foul existence. The Antichrist cooperated wholeheartedly, telling the Holy Father that once he saw that he could not be harmed, the Holy Father could then step down or be carried dead from his throne, whichever he chose, leaving it to the Antichrist.

They tried in all ways possible to destroy the Antichrist, but only when they immersed him in a vat of molten lead was there any marked lessening of his strength. Priests entrusted with the Antichrist often felt ill in his presence, as though they might suddenly go mad, and it was only at the Antichrist's whim that they did not.

But when his body was lowered into the molten metal, they all felt as though a great weight had been lifted from their souls. The feeling lasted until the Antichrist was raised from the lead, and the metal dripped off him. He seemed changed, as well, as though he were actually frightened, and ordered them to remove his body from where it dangled in chains over the vat.

The attending priests found that odd, for before, when he had wanted to be free of his bonds, he'd simply passed through them. But now, if he passed through the chains, he would fall again into the lead, and they sensed with certainty that another immersion was the last thing he wanted.

Several of the priests hastened to follow his orders, but one of them, a strong-minded soul named Father Ignatius, pushed them away and turned the wheel that lowered the Antichrist back into the lead. He screamed at Father Ignatius, but the bold priest continued, even as several of the others actually attacked him to make him stop.

But those attacks ceased once the Antichrist sank beneath the surface of hot lead. It was as if the other priests had come to their senses, and they apologized to Ignatius for trying to stop him. Then they knew that lead could contain the Antichrist's power.

This they reported to the Holy Father, who ordered that a leaden cell be made, and a lead casket in which the Antichrist might be transported. Ever since, the Antichrist has been imprisoned in lead under the deepest security. But his strength has grown over the centuries, and there are times when his mind can burst through its leaden prison and touch those who, for unknown reasons, are particularly susceptible to his wiles.

The Antichrist calls upon them to find him and free him, or to commit terrible acts in his name. There are things done that no one can explain, deeds so horrible that humanity shudders at them. Sometimes those who commit them, if they are not caught or do not take their own lives afterward, search for the Antichrist and follow his voice in their heads, so the Antichrist must be moved from time to time, lest these dark disciples of his track him down.

The last remaining members of the Knights Templar were approached by the Holy Father a few centuries ago when this dreadful activity was beginning to peak. They dedicated themselves to investigating strange occurrences to try and determine if the Antichrist was involved. They were the eyes and ears and hands of the Vatican, where the Antichrist was concerned.

If there was too much activity, if the acts were the type for which the Antichrist was most often responsible, then the Knights would act, eliminating those murderers and madmen who sought to do the unholy creature's bidding. The Knights would also alert his captors to relocate him once again, to have the captive vanish, to leave another dead trail for the Antichrist's followers, so that they would have to pick up the scent anew.

But now the Knights Templar are all dead, felled at last. There is no one left to stand between the Antichrist and the world he would destroy. And now fools who know nothing of his power are going to try to destroy him. If they fail, and they can do nothing but, then the world is his.

F
or a long time the three operatives just stood there, looking into the face of the old priest. Then Tony spoke. "Father, why didn't they just seal him away forever somewhere? Put him somewhere where his . . . disciples would never find him."

"If they'd done that, my son, it would have had to have been at the bottom of the sea, or down a bottomless hole in some deep cave. If that had been the case, there would be no possibility for redemption."

"Excuse me?" Joseph said.

Father Alexander nodded. "This has been a dream of the Holy Fathers through the centuries, for this Antichrist to redeem itself, repent of its sins, and use its powers for good in the world."